Mended Hearts.

Part XII.

To say that Wendy had always loved the month of December would be an understatement.

Not only it was her birthday month, but she also loved the Christmas season and everything good that came with it – well, maybe not the sometimes overly excessive consumerism that always seemed to trap a great majority of residents of the small podunk mountain town in it each and every holiday season, so the teenage girl thought it would be absolutely ridiculous not to acknowledge the fact that even she fell into the trap of excessive consumerism more often than she actually intended or wanted to.

And for the first time since moving back to South Park, Wendy truly felt like things in her life had managed to fall somewhat into place – school and a part-time job at Tweek Bros coffee shop had been going reasonably well, she had managed to save up just enough money to buy herself a decent car without needing her parents' help to cover all the costs, and her newly formed relationship with David had been going relatively smoothly as well.

Wendy and David had been dating for nearly a month and a half now, with the two of them even having their own routine that consisted of them taking turns driving each other to school every week and stopping at the coffee place she worked at to pick their daily shot of caffeine together.

Apart from having some tiffs here and there, things had been going pretty damn well between them, with even their respective groups of friends noticing just how happy both Wendy and David seemed to be with each other in what was still a relatively fresh relationship.

The dark haired girl thought she would be damned if she didn't admit that David had certainly made her last several months of living again in South Park easier and made her feel more settled back. While he might've been only the third boyfriend she had had in her almost seventeen years of life, he was definitely the one who made her new-old life in South Park better about tenfold.

Her blossoming relationship with David also hadn't gone unnoticed by both Sean and Vanessa, who managed to easily piece everything together when the teenage boy had dropped Wendy off from school last week, with her acting all nervous around him and taking a suspiciously long amount of time to walk him out of the house.

With almost half of December now come and gone, the topic of where the Testaburgers would spend their Christmas holidays had often been brought up in their day-to-day conversations, although both Wendy and her parents knew that they wouldn't stray away from their usual destination of Tampa – since they had had a long-time tradition of visiting Vanessa's side of the family in Florida during the holidays, with Wendy happily tagging along with her parents and spending time with her dear cousins and other relatives.

And frankly, after what had been a really stressful day of her taking two final exams of winter semester, Wendy just hoped she could have a quiet dinner with her parents and catch up on what had been going on in their lives that week, as well as to further discuss their upcoming trip to Florida.

However, her parents clearly had way, way better things to talk about with their only child.

''So, a new boyfriend, huh?''

Wendy nearly choked on her food as her father brought up the topic of her having a new boyfriend, with the noirette suddenly becoming very flustered over the whole ordeal and not really being in the mood to talk about it.

Burying her head into her hands, she let out a muffled groan, not wanting to be subjected to her parents' merciless teasing about her new love interest. Although she knew that they meant nothing but the best for her, she still sincerely hoped that they wouldn't tell her extended family members about her having a new boyfriend and then force her to be subjected to even more unnecessary teasing.

''Yeah.'', Wendy admitted with a faint sigh. ''I have a new boyfriend, okay? Are you surprised?''

Exchanging a look of understanding with his wife, Sean smiled at his daughter and patted her comfortingly on her back in an attempt to ease her nerves and send her a clear message that both he and Vanessa were really happy about Wendy being in a potentially serious relationship again after what had been quite a long time. ''A little bit, but regardless of that, we're quite happy for you sweetie.''

''We do know that school has always been your biggest priority, so it really did surprise us when we realized you are now dating that boy.'', Vanessa chimed in, taking a sip of water from her glass.

''His name is David, mom.'', Wendy rolled her eyes at her mother's seemingly nonchalant choice of words, but decided not to make a huge deal out of it. ''Also, we've been together for not even two months, and you already got to know to him.''

''Yes, we sure did, but your mom and I both think we could get to know him a bit better. You should invite him to dinner with us sometime. We don't bite, so feel free to invite him over, okay?'', Sean responded.

''Yeah, dad, I know…''

''We know you've been swamped with exams and have had to study really hard for them.'', the older raven haired woman suddenly changed the topic of their conversation again, clearly wanting to talk more about her daughter's upcoming exam results than her blooming love life.

''Mom, I know.'', Wendy said as she pinched the bridge of her nose. ''No need to repeat it like a broken record.''

''Well, at least try not to think too negatively about the upcoming results of your exams and how you will do, because we're sure you'll excell at them as always. Plus, your birthday is next week!''

Glancing over at the calendar that was hung on the living room wall, it only then dawned upon the dark haired girl that next week not only was her seventeenth birthday, but that it was also the second-to-last week of school before the long-awaited winter break would roll around – with high hopes that David actually had something great in store not only for her birthday, but also for the upcoming school break.

But even more importantly, the very thoughts of potentially getting to spend the entirety of school break with her boyfriend only made Wendy's heart pitter-patter with pure excitement.

With final exams and subsequent stress over them finally come and gone, Wendy thought she seriously needed a break from everything that had happened over the course of the finals' week – pulling all-nighters and barely sleeping a wink as a result of it, drinking what seemed to be liters and liters of coffee and unnecessarily stressing herself out over how the exams would go.

But unsurprisingly, she had managed to pass all of her exams with tremendous success, only narrowly missing out on getting a perfect score from her final Advanced Placement Chemistry exam and getting beaten in it by no-one else but Kyle.

And while Wendy had been too busy with focusing on her final exams and how they would fare, her seventeenth birthday had managed to quietly sneak up on her – as that had been the last thing on her mind during those incredibly stressful several days, with her pushing it to the very back of her mind and not really giving it much thought.

David, however, seemed to be much more on board with his girlfriend's birthday, pleasantly surprising her by taking her to a cute little date after school on Tuesday, as well as gifting her a box of chocolates and a nice bouquet of her favorite flowers.

Since the beginning of the long-awaited winter break had been approaching at a rapid pace, so did the talks about everyone's plans for the break get pushed into the limelight and became the main topic of conversations amongst the students of South Park High School – including both Wendy and David.

The teenage girl had more-or-less already decided that she would travel with her parents to Tampa and spend the first week of her school break there, although she was more uncertain about where she would celebrate New Year's Eve and whether David would be able to come with her at all.

However, the exciting thoughts about spending the school break with her boyfriend had been squashed as soon as David started talking about his own plans that somehow didn't include Wendy, which left her quite surprised and not really sure how to feel about the whole thing.

''Are you serious about us not spending the New Year's Eve together?'', Wendy asked in a surprised tone, with a hint of growing disappointment in it. She desperately wanted to hear that her boyfriend was indeed not being serious when he had told her about spending almost the entirety of his school break in Austin.

''Well yeah, babe.'', David shrugged his shoulders in response, smiling sheepishly. ''You know that I would honestly love to spend it with you, but these plans have been made way before we even started dating. Also, you know that my dad lives in Austin and that I only get to see him when I'm off school.''

''Oh, okay then.''

Groaning inwardly and nervously fiddling with the hem of her black pinafore dress, Wendy knew deep down that she really couldn't do anything about her boyfriend's plans and suddenly make him change them in order to spend the school break with her instead – especially after he had already made those plans with his old group of friends from elementary school out of all people, so she really couldn't force herself to tell him that he shouldn't go.

She at least hoped that they would be able to keep in touch with each other and talk as much as they possibly could, and that those two weeks would pass by in a blink of an eye.

''I just hope we will be able to talk to each other whenever we have some free time.''

''Of course Wends, it's an understatement.'', David flashed Wendy a reassuring grin, which helped to ease her nerves just a little bit.

''I know that it would be really shitty of me to tell you that you shouldn't go to Austin and not spend time with your dad, as well as to ditch your friends because of me.'', the ravenette replied. ''That won't really make me the best girlfriend material, will it?''

''Of course.'', the teenage boy smiled. ''But hey, didn't you say that you will spend your Christmas break in Tampa?''

''Yeah! It's been a while since I've actually spent my holidays there, but I don't think we'll be there for more than a week.'', Wendy revealed.

''And what about your plans for the New Year? Do you have something already planned out or?'', David queried.

''Kinda', but I think I'll probably celebrate it at Tolkien's place this time. My parents have also made plans about celebrating it here with a whole bunch of their friends at Stan's family weed farm, so they'll most likely get completely wasted and high as fuck.'', Wendy rolled her chocolate brown eyes at the thought of her parents stirring up all kinds of trouble when the New Year's Eve would roll around.

Although she loved her parents, she honestly had to admit that even they would more often than not get affected by the town's general stupidity and start acting completely crazy and degenerate, so it wasn't that uncommon for both Sean and Vanessa's general level-headedness and composure to completely wear off whenever they were in South Park – therefore, it wasn't a huge shocker that they had gotten even more susceptible to it ever since moving back.

''So, for how long are you staying in Florida?'', David asked.

''For a week.'', Wendy replied as she took one more bite of her double cheeseburger. ''I'll be back on the twenty-eighth though.''

Even though on the outside she seemed to be absolutely fine with her boyfriend spending the entirety of his school break in Austin, Wendy suddenly felt a strange feeling bubble in the pits of her stomach and had one incredibly nagging thought announce its presence inside her mind.

David potentially forgetting about the fact that he had a girlfriend and him fooling around with other girls as a result of that.

The raven haired girl knew really well that she had a knack for getting jealous very easily and fighting for her man, but she definitely didn't want to think too much and burden herself with the thoughts of her boyfriend potentially cheating on her with some random-ass girl from Texas – but at least for now, and for the time being, she decided to keep those nerve-racking thoughts all to herself.

''Wends, is everything okay?'', David asked as he waved a hand in front of Wendy's face, snapping her out of her reverie. ''You've zoned out for a bit.''

''Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.'', Wendy replied quickly as she straightened herself up and gave her boyfriend a small smile. ''Just thinking about some stuff.''

''About what?''

Falling silent at his words, the ravenette girl realized that she was better off with telling David the truth right away, instead of trying to somehow skirt around the fact that she indeed had been feeling insecure and unsure about his upcoming trip to Austin.

''I don't know.'', she said, letting out a sigh and slumping herself against the red faux-leather skin of the seat. ''I'm kinda' worried about this trip of yours.''

''Well, I've already said that we'll talk all the time. No need to worry about it, babe.''

''No, that's not what's been bothering me. I know that we'll talk to each other, but I'm actually worried about something else.''

''Okay, about what?''

''Look, I know that I probably have nothing to worry about, but I'm kinda' worried about what's gonna' happen due to us being apart for a somewhat long period of time. You know, even though we've been spending so much time together since we've started dating and see each other almost every single day, the thought of us not seeing in person for an extended period of time kinda' worries me.'', Wendy admitted, taking a deep breath before what she was about to say. ''And…''

''What else?'', David said as he moved closer to Wendy and placed his hand on top of hers.

''I know this might just be my insecurity speaking, but I'm worried about you fooling around with other girls because I won't be there.''

Immediately widening his hazel eyes to the size of saucers, David couldn't really believe what his girlfriend was saying, although he kind of understood where she was coming from – they indeed had been spending a considerable amount of time together, so in reality this would be the first time they would be apart from each other in a while.

''Wends, you have absolutely nothing to worry about, okay?'', he said. ''Why would I even think about hooking up with other girls when I have you, and you're everything I need.''

''Honestly?''

''Honestly.'', David confirmed with a big, goofy grin. ''And you really have nothing to worry about.''

''Okay, if you say so.'', Wendy said as she breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that her boyfriend would stay one hundred percent true to his words and not betray her trust.

Well, hopefully he won't.

''Stan, are you even listening to me?''

''Of course.'', the dark haired teen replied from his spot on the living room carpet, not really bothering to pay too much attention to what his girlfriend was saying, considering the fact that she had been spending a good chunk of the time on her phone and had been wrapped up in her own little bubble ever since she got to his house.

''Okay, then what I've been talking about this whole time?'', Melissa spoke up, pushing herself up into a sitting position and tossing her phone onto the other side of the couch. She folded her arms across her chest, impatiently waiting for Stan to be done with what was probably only his second or third round of playing CSGO with Kyle, Kenny, Cartman and the rest of their friends.

''Patricia is throwing yet another party this weekend?'', Stan asked in a cautious tone, pausing the game for a moment and glancing over his shoulder to see whether the brunette girl's sour facial expression would eventually wear off – and luckily for him, it seemed to have worked.

''Yeah, okay.'', she groaned. ''You got lucky with that one.''

''Something wrong?''

''Yeah, I would very much appreciate it if you could pause your video game for a little bit and pay attention to me instead.''

''Why? It's not like it's gonna' make any difference whatsoever.'', Stan responded. ''You've been on your phone ever since you got here. It kinda' seems like pot calling the kettle black.''

Letting out another groan at the fact that Stan didn't give her an answer she had hoped for and that he continued to play his video game regardless, Melissa continued to blab further. ''Ugh, can you remind me why did you even invite me over if all you planned to do was to play video games and barely pay any attention to me? You know, you could've easily just texted me and told me you're not in the mood to hang out, and I would totally understand it.''

The frankly bitter words coming out of Melissa's mouth seemed to be just bitter enough to catch Stan's attention, who paused the game for the second time and turned around to face his girlfriend again. He couldn't really help himself but insert just a little bit of cynicism into the whole situation. ''Would you?''

''Look, the main reason why I invited you over, apart from wanting to spend some time with you, was to talk about something that's been bugging me recently.'', he continued further, suddenly feeling a bit more nervous over what he was about to say next. ''It might not seem like a big deal to you, but it sure as hell does to me.''

Raising a curious eyebrow at him, Melissa gave Stan a verbal cue to go ahead with what would inevitably turn out to be one heck of an uncomfortable conversation.

''Mel, I want you to be one hundred percent honest with me.''

''Okay, I will. I'm listening.''

Taking a deep breath in order to gather his messy thoughts, Stan felt his stomach churning nervously over what he was about to say, but tried to keep his composure as best as he could. ''One night when you were sleeping over, you left your phone on my bed when you went to take a shower, and you got a message from some random guy on Messenger. I normally wouldn't pay any attention to it, but the message was really flirty, so curiosity got the best of me and I checked the message.''

Melissa immediately fell silent and visibly blanched, gulping in slight nervousness over the fact that Stan might've started to suspect that she had returned to her old ways and had started to have other guys sliding in her DM's again, which unfortunately meant breaking the promises she had given to him after their reconciliation all the way back in April. ''What messages? I've deleted all of them.''

''I'm still not convinced.'', Stan retorted. ''Look, you might think that what happened over the spring break is a thing of the past and that I shouldn't think about it anymore, but you have no idea how much it still haunts me to this day. I always get insecure whenever you talk to other guys – and not just in person, but also through the texts.''

''I didn't have no idea you've felt this way since then.''

''Well, I have, unfortunately.'', the dark haired teenager admitted with a faint sigh, currently not wanting to look his significant other in the eye. ''I don't think you still understand how much you hurt me.''

''And what are you gonna' do about it? Dump me right before Christmas and enter into new year as a newly-single guy?'', Melissa suddenly snapped back defensively, causing Stan's face to visible blanche at her sudden mood shift and the fact that she had chosen to act defensively right as he was about to question her further about possibly backflipping on her promises of actually not letting other guys slide into her DM's and being a better girlfriend to him.

''Why are you trying to play the victim now? Did I say that I'll do it?''

''No.''

''Exactly.'', Stan replied bitterly, shaking his head in disbelief over the fact that he and Melissa managed to get into yet another argument after what had seemed to be a couple of months of them having almost zero conflicts or fights over the pettiest of little things.

And frankly, with New Year's Eve just around the corner and subsequent New Year's resolutions to make, Stan was definitely planning to do some long and serious thinking about the future of his relationship with Melissa, because he just wasn't sure if he would be able to put up with her temper tantrums, lying and the whole 'playing the victim' shit anymore.

All he knew was that he probably should've done something about it way, way sooner, instead of putting up with it for such a long, goddamned period of time.

Wendy shut the door of her new car with a giddy smile, feeling excited over the fact that she had finally managed to get herself a new car and not having to rely all that much anymore on either of her parents lending their cars to her or having to carpool with her friends to school.

But even more importantly, she was just glad that all those hours she had spent working overtime in the coffee shop actually managed to pay off and weren't done for nothing in the end.

And with Wendy telling her friends the exciting news, Bebe and Tweek were the first ones to suggest to her that they should all do a little road trip on the weekend, while Red claimed that she had already made different plans and thus wouldn't be able to hang out with her friends.

It had honestly been a hot minute since Wendy last hung out with her two best friends, so going for a little drive with them and taking her new car for a spin seemed like the best possible option to spend her Friday night.

Driving through many residential streets of South Park, the ravenette then took a left turn and started heading towards Bebe's house, where she immediately found two blonde teenagers standing in the Stevens' family driveway – one slightly taller blonde with locks sticking in every possible direction, and a slightly shorter blonde girl with less of a wild hairdo.

The teenage girl parked her dark blue Toyota hybrid close to the curb, pulling up the parking brake and sliding down the car window. She offered the two blondes a quick wave, smirking cheekily and feeling ecstatic to finally spend some time with her two closest friends. "Get in losers, we're going for a little drive!''

Swapping a surprised look with each other, Bebe and Tweek then snorted in unison as they started to make their way towards Wendy's shiny, new car.

"Quoting Mean Girls now Wends?", Bebe said as she slumped herself in the backseat, allowing Tweek to call shotgun and drive in the front seat for once. ''That's new.''

''Oh well, cut me off some slack – after you've been gloating on and on about how great of a movie it is, I just had to give it a watch! And now, I can't stop myself from quoting it all the goddamned time.'', Wendy replied. ''Okay, now that that's out of my system, where would you guys like to go?''

''I'm a bit hungry, ngh.'', Tweek said. ''Mmph, maybe McDonald's or something like that?''

''Sounds good.'', Bebe replied as she glanced over to Wendy. ''What about you?''

''I'm not really in the mood to eat junk food, but I guess having some of it wouldn't hurt. Sure, why not?'', the teenage girl responded as she took a right turn towards the McDonald's drive-in, groaning at the sight of what was a fairly lengthy waiting line.

''So, how did your little birthday date with David go? I don't really remember you talking much about it afterwards.'', Bebe asked.

Letting out a sigh and gripping the steering wheel harder, Wendy knew that she wouldn't really sugar coat things and say that her date had been pretty good, for very obvious reasons. "Fine."

"Okay, judging by the tone of your voice, something tells me that your date didn't go the way you wanted it to. Did David do something?"

''You know, it sometimes surprises me how quick you two can notice when something's bothering me – even faster than my parents on certain occasions.''

''Well Wends, it's n-not like having a poker face is your strongest suit.'', Tweek admitted as he scrolled through the menu, listening to bits and pieces of the conversation the two girls were having. ''What did he do?''

"Okay, in case you really wanna' know…'', Wendy said as they moved at a painfully slow speed towards the drive-through window. ''He told me that he will spend his entire school break in Austin with his dad, and potentially entire first week of the new school semester.''

''Seriously?'', Bebe responded in disbelief. ''Okay firstly, I would totally lose my shit if Clyde did this to me. And secondly, why didn't you ask David if you could tag along with him?''

Turning around in order to give the curly blonde girl an unimpressed look, Wendy snorted in response. ''Really? Don't you think I would look desperate trying to go with him or maybe tell him to change his plans. Plus, those plans have already been made!''

''You haven't been dating for that long anyway.''

''So? It's not like you and Clyde have been dating for any longer than David and me.''

''She's got a point here.'', the slightly twitchy blonde teen responded from the front seat. ''D-do you trust David enough when he tells you everything's gonna' be fine on that trip, even though you guys haven't been together for that long?''

''Should I worry about David cheating on me?'', Wendy said with a hint of anxiety in her voice, feeling even uneasier about the whole situation.

''Well, do you trust him enough?''

''Yeah, obviously. I mean, he's been nothing but super affectionate and caring since we've started dating, so I'm sure he won't stoop so low and forget about the fact that he has a girlfriend back home!''

''Look, I know you're probably tired of me bringing them up all the goddamned time…'', Bebe said. ''But, your ex-boyfriend's current main squeeze did the very same thing to him – she was being super sweet, caring and affectionate, and then did a whole one-eighty and proceeded to cheat on him with her elementary school sweetheart or whatever.''

''Wait, what?'', Wendy said, brown eyes widening in a mix of surprise and disbelief. ''I know that they've been together for a while, but no one has ever told me about Melissa cheating on Stan.''

''You've only talked about her treating him poorly, and I can definitely confirm that after we had that spat at the homecoming game afterparty. However, her cheating on Stan? That's new.'', she continued further. ''I'm just baffled that he's still putting up with her shit.''

''Aren't we all?'', Bebe snickered in response.

''Yeah, true that.'', Wendy said as she drummed her fingertips against the steering wheel, with one very familiar thought reasoning loudly within her – and the very same thought she had had ever since getting to know the ins and outs of her ex-boyfriend's current relationship with Melissa.

He could do so much better than her.

Much, much better.

Well you guys, I'm still alive and kicking. :)

I decided to skip the usual introductory bullshit about 'why I haven't been able to post a new chapter in due time' and present to you the long-awaited twelfth chapter of this story. Aaaand we officially reached the halfway point of this fanfic, which genuinely makes me excited about everything that's gonna' happen in the remaining chapters!

This story has been my pride and joy since first posting it in September of last year, so there's no way in hell I'm gonna' give up on it and leave you guys hanging (especially now with half of the story complete).

And speaking of things moving forward, it definitely looks like Wendy and David's relationship just hit its very first bump, while Stan and Melissa only continue to have more issues in their weakening relationship! More things are about to happen in both relationships, so stay tuned for that folks.

Until next time!